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UNIVERSITY OF TOLEDO'S EQUIVALENT TO RADIO FREE EUROPE

Thursday, March 28, 2013

We're back and still don't know our headsss from our tailssss. First we are going to form ssome new collegessss, then ssome ssschoolsss, and then, after we shed our skinss, we will give ourself big bonuses.

Per request, Bloggie posts below the recent Faculty Senate Open Letter to administration. The Administrative Response will follow in a separate posting. Format has suffered in the posting, but contents are entirely true to the original:

March 12, 2013

Open letter to President Jacobs, Provost Scarborough, and Chancellor Gold:

This letter is being written to you on behalf of the Faculty Senate and the Graduate Council. The Graduate Council authorized this communication by a unanimous vote at our meeting of February 19, 2013, and the Faculty Senate authorized this letter by unanimous vote on March 12, 2013. Members of the Faculty Senate and the Graduate Council are concerned that coping with the claimed financial challenges of the University through the workload policy proposed by Provost Scarborough is over-reliant on cost savings through workforce reduction and indiscriminate increases in workload. Our fear is that the proposed workload policy will prove to be a short-term, possibly even short-sighted, approach that emphasizes quick savings through workforce reductions that will ultimately damage research and graduate education at the University.

Graduate education is a strength of the University. Graduate students account for almost one in five students and the University earns almost double the subsidy and tuition from the typical graduate student than it does from an undergraduate. Members of the Graduate Council perceive the proposed workload as a threat to the reputation, income, and survivability of the University.

Workforce reduction is an attractive strategy for realizing quick cost savings. Increasing the work- load of tenured and tenure-track faculty certainly has the potential to reduce costs by allowing the University to rely on fewer part-time, visiting, and other non-tenure track faculty. Increasing workload can also be an attractive strategy for quickly increasing revenues. The danger, however, is in racing to reduce workforce and increase workload without considering the long-term effects. We would like to elaborate on some of the negative consequences of “rush to judgment” on workforce reduction and workload.

Thomas et al. found that 74 percent of downsized organizations reported that morale, trust, and productivity suffered following a workforce reduction. Wager also reported that organizations experiencing a workforce reduction were more likely to have lower scores on efficiency and employee satisfaction measures and “report less favourable [sic] employer-employee relations.”

The high cost of making changes can offset expected savings which can then plunge a company into serious decline. Thomas et al. identified several factors which predicted organizational decline. These were:

• A “brain drain” that occurs following workforce reduction where the best and most highly mobile employees leave the organization. Caperella warns that “control over a firm’s tal- ent inventory is even more critical” during market contractions than it is during periods of expansion.

• Employee distress among those who remain after a workforce reduction has an adverse impact on the organization’s productivity, worker morale, employee-management relations, quality of work, and customer service.

Perhaps one of the biggest liabilities in employing a workforce reduction strategy coupled with an increase in workload is that it most likely will fail. Thomas et al. found that fewer than half of downsized companies reported that they actually reduced costs, while only 32 percent reportedly increased profits. Ominously, only 17 percent reported that they were actually able to reduce their organizational bureaucracies. Strategies identified by Thomas et al. that predict failure include:

• Downsizing by attrition and hiring freezes

• Mandating more work from remaining employees instead of redesigning or reducing workloads

It should be noted that these are all strategies that have been employed, are being employed, or are proposed under the Provost’s workload policy. Caperella warns that “Typically, workforce reduction is seen as the most immediate way to achieve cost savings, but a ’bare bones’ strategy risks . . . a significant negative impact to the business.”

There are a number of “best practices” that Thomas et al. recommend that can help insure successful workforce reductions.

• Have a well-developed plan for strategic workforce reduction so that high performing or mission critical units are protected, while underperforming units are aided, modified, or elim- inated

• Involve and provide incentives to employees for identifying changes that could or should be made.

• De-centralize decision-making processes

• Empower employees to implement identified changes.

• Use a variety of approaches, not just reducing headcount and increasing the workloads of remaining employees.

• Use mutually agreed-upon performance measures to identify areas that are performing well and those that need improvement.

• Develop new reward and recognition systems that align with new organizational goals and priorities.

It is our belief that many of these components are missing or under-developed in the proposed workload plan.

The members of the Graduate Council appreciate that Provost Scarborough, through his proposed plan, is attempting to confront an existential challenge to the University. The members of the Graduate Council, however, believe that the Provost’s proposed solution may be creating other, less obvious, existential challenges to the University in general and to graduate education in particular.

Page 2 of 4

􏰯􏰬􏰮􏰭􏰪􏰭􏰬􏰁􏰅􏰜􏰄􏰗􏰚􏰇􏰊􏰠􏰜􏰊􏰇􏰇􏰂􏰅􏰝􏰄􏰁􏰐􏰚􏰝􏰄􏰪􏰁􏰫􏰆􏰊􏰜􏰊􏰤􏰜􏰄􏰅􏰡􏰈􏰒􏰊􏰏􏰊􏰜􏰕􏰪􏰒􏰤􏰊􏰅􏰄􏰩􏰈􏰝􏰂􏰚􏰎􏰒􏰂􏰜􏰕􏰨􏰊􏰀

The new policy attempts to impose standardized workloads on a diverse group of faculty, in diverse fields of endeavor, with diverse instructional and research demands. This wholesale approach to establishing instructional loads, while ignoring institutional needs for service and research, empha- sizes quantity of work over the nature and quality of the work performed. We perceive the changes to the workload policy as counter-productive to the interests and strategic goals of the University. We expect that the universal application of a standardized workload policy will lead to the above mentioned “brain drain,” poor morale, lost research productivity, a decline in external funding, hos- tile employer-employee relations, a decline in work productivity and quality, and inferior services to our students.

A particular concern is the de-emphasis and the withdrawal of support for all but “fully-funded” research. The majority of research supported on grants from state, federal, and private agencies will not qualify as “funded” under this new definition, jeopardizing the ability of faculty to complete current projects and compete for future awards. External grant funding for research in the human- ities and liberal arts is very limited at best and is often not available for graduate research. The proposed teaching workload policy will severely hinder the ability of faculty and students in these disciplines to conduct research and publish their results, limiting their professional development and hindering the continuous improvement and development of curriculum. Perhaps most impor- tantly, the University will be “ceding the field” to our competitors. Without an active and growing faculty and student research record, students will seek out other institutions to attend where they can pursue their research and educational goals. The ability to recruit and retain high quality, research active faculty and the students they attract will be lost after even a brief interruption and will take years to recover. Many of the members of Graduate Council experienced this nearly 15 years ago as a consequence of the failed presidency of Vik Kapoor.

Another existential threat is mandating minimum class sizes. Mandating minimum class sizes indis- criminately threatens the viability of graduate programs because many graduate courses will not be offered. The consolidation and reduction of course offerings reduces the educational opportunities available to students and places timely degree completion at risk. Students will avoid the University once it is discovered that we cannot guarantee that a course offered will not be cancelled. Students will find delays to graduation, and subsequent delays to entering the workforce, to be intolerable and unacceptable.

These mandated minimum class sizes also affect the viability of many of our smaller but vitally important undergraduate programs. In a manner similar to the de-emphasis on much of our research efforts, the indiscriminate loss of many of these undergraduate and graduate programs also has the potential for a devastating impact on our ability to retain and recruit high quality faculty and the students they attract. Such faculty may value the opportunity to teach large numbers of students in other majors, but they will likely primarily come in order to interact with upper division and graduate students in their majors and to pursue undergraduate and graduate-level research with those students. If this opportunity is diminished or removed, the best faculty will no longer be attracted to the University of Toledo. We believe that the future of the university lies in the ability to attract such faculty.

If we have a real deficit, the graduate faculty have a fiduciary responsibility to the citizens of the state, particularly northwest Ohio, to propose solutions that lead to fiscal stability while providing excellent educational opportunities to our citizens. Below are conversation-starter solutions:

• Decentralize decision-making. Colleges should be given budget targets and the autonomy to determine their own staffing patterns and efficiencies.

Page 3 of 4

􏰯􏰬􏰮􏰭􏰪􏰭􏰬􏰁􏰅􏰜􏰄􏰗􏰚􏰇􏰊􏰠􏰜􏰊􏰇􏰇􏰂􏰅􏰝􏰄􏰁􏰐􏰚􏰝􏰄􏰪􏰁􏰫􏰆􏰊􏰜􏰊􏰤􏰜􏰄􏰅􏰡􏰈􏰒􏰊􏰏􏰊􏰜􏰕􏰪􏰒􏰤􏰊􏰅􏰄􏰩􏰈􏰝􏰂􏰚􏰎􏰒􏰂􏰜􏰕􏰨􏰊􏰀

• Continued use of metrics to evaluate programs. Under-performing programs should be re- viewed for re-design, support, or elimination.

• Continued use of performance metrics (as contractually defined in the CBA) to assess teaching, research, and service productivity.

• Establishing workload should be returned to the Deans and department Chairs. Deans and Chairs should be held accountable for the performance metrics negotiated in workloads.

• Each college should develop its own plans to deliver instruction more efficiently, based on student population and needs.

• The reward structure should provide incentives to faculty who deliver instruction more effi- ciently or economically.

• Collaboration between faculty and enrollment officers to update enrollment materials dis- tributed to prospective students and to update presentations made in recruiting regions.

• Reductions in administrative costs need to occur in the middle and at the top, and not just at the bottom. Job and work flow analyses need to be conducted to eliminate waste and duplication at the level of the Deans, VPs, and above. Administrative expenses are all cost and no revenue. A reasonable ratio of administrative to instructional costs needs to be determined and achieved.

• Administrators are encouraged to lead by example. Freezing salaries and open positions and foregoing bonuses would be a good faith demonstration that the administration intends to “share the pain.”

Faculty Senate and Graduate Council are eager to work with the administration to revise this most recent workload policy.

Respectively yours,

The Faculty of the Executive Committees of the UT Graduate Council and UT Faculty Senate

Caperella, J.,Workforce reduction: not necessarily the best option for your business. Downloaded February 26, 2013, from http://blog.yoh.com/2009/07/workforce-reduction-not-necessarily- the-best-option-for-your-business.html.

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

In honor of St Patrick's Day, Bloggie invites your submissions for a limerick contest on UT administration, administrators, reorganization, or other follies involving the University and those who have run it down rather than run it.

Please submit your limerick, however profane or disrespectful, as comments to this post. Your prize? The respect and admiration of your peers!

Cheerio!

P.S. Please no Odes, Dirges, Haiku, or Heroic Epics in Iambic Pentameter at this time.

Hard Eight: Auto-Ethnographic Essays on Academic Culture Featuring the End of the Arts & Sciences College, University of Toledo, 2010

Daily Koan

Should the newly discovered black hole be named in honor of UT BOT?

Swamp Bubble

Do you agree or disagree that University of Toledo suffers from administrative bloat?

How do you feel about the proposed UT Degree Guarantee program? (Reposted to allow more people to vote.)

How do you feel about the proposed UT Guarantee program?

How would you grade the overall performance of the Jacobs' administration on running the University of Toledo?

COMMENT OF THE WEEK

Bloggie applauds this perspicacious observer:

"The administration is in a panic mode to implement controversial and irreversible structural and curricular changes campus-wide by early February fiscal plan deadlines with only the vaguest notions of their impacts. The plan is, according to an interview with a top administrator published in the most recent Independent Collegian, to cast out many seeds and "see what grows." This experimental garden, as most senators articulated in many different ways, seems a costly recipe for disaster. Utter madness. Stay tuned."

"Dictionary of Academia" Read it While it's Hot

A MUST READ FOR ALL ACADEMICS! Now on Amazon Kindle. Click on Professor Goat above to be directed to the book.

Comment of the Week

"This is that old tension between the corporate way of doing things and the academic way of doing things. In the corporate world, you sweep everything under the rug to make your b.s. as shiny, pleasing to the nose, and profitable as possible. In the academic world, you operate with a higher moral standard. Veritas and all that."

Comment of the Week of August 13

Re UT academic posers and hypocrites:

Have their checks calculated in units of postmodern theoretical currency and issued in photocopied legal tender notes signed by Walter Benjamin with a photo of Karl Marx and a seal stamped “In Derrida We Trust”.

Comment of the Era

Wow! Ain't that something.

-Anonymous

Comment of the Week

Mention goes to the the anonymous commentator of Feb 7, who, regarding UT President Llloyd Jacob's "Investing in Faculty" letter, stated: "If we could use the same criteria for 'investing in administrators' we could cut most of those positions."

Comments to HLC

Make sure you address your comments to HLC to the email address listed below in the "Higher Learning Commission Wants to Know" post. This may be the only chance you have to be heard. Bloggie hears that UT administration has discussed giving faculty "training" so that faculty members know how to "properly" talk to the HLC folks. How's that for stacking the deck? Does everyone get a little script to read? Make sure you practice before a mirror at being bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.

Comment of the Week!

Definitely, the Comment of the Week award goes to Anonymous 12:14 pm, Dec 3, under the "Higher Learning Commission Needs to Know" posting by Diogenes. Pithy and pointed!

TO CONTACT BLOGGIE . . .

Bloggie is always glad to consider submissions to this blog. If you have something that you wish posted please send it to:

ascbloggie@gmail.com

Letter and Petition from Foreign Languages Faculty Member

A couple weeks ago, at the beginning of summer break, we in the Department of Foreign Languages were informed that our secretary's position was being eliminated and that while she will not lose her job (she'll be transferred), that position is not to be filled. We apparently will be expected to do our own jobs plus what we can of the secretary's. That is clearly not acceptable, and so one of the steps we in FL are taking against it is an online petition now available for any who want to (including those who for whatever reason--not a registered Ohio voter, not a US citizen, etc.--cannot sign the petition against SB5), to read and sign.

I know not everyone on the blog will be interested in this; I'm not asking anyone who doesn't want to, to sign or even read the petition. I do think that there are many who would be interested and would want to sign it--if they knew about it.

It's scary to post this under my own name; I'm as afraid as anyone of repercussions. But this is simply too important to keep quiet on, and we have to do something! FL is not the first department that this has happened to, and it's almost certain not to be the last if we don't speak up in a way that the administration will hear us and in a way that makes clear that other people are seeing that it's going on.

Nemeth Does it Again

Nemeth's New Article in Collegian

The Independent Collegian has run another of Professor Nemeth's fine and provocative articles in its latest edition. This one discusses the double-talk by mouthpieces for the current UT administration concerning the effects of and reasons behind so-called strategic reorganization. Make sure you get the latest version of Newspeak 5.1 if you want to decode what UT administrators are really saying.

UT Ranks 13th Nationally on Administrative Bloat

See Appendix B of the Administrative Bloat report posted on 8/28 for evidence, but UT now has a higher proportion of administrators to students than all but 12 public universities in America. President Jacobs has finally put University of Toledo in the top tier. With Strategic Organization he may be aiming for number one.

This Blog is a free and independent information source. Contributions and comments are welcome. Contact: ASCBloggie@gmail.com WARNING AND DISCLAIMER !!!! This blog is entirely non-official!! People may express opinion here, exercising freedom of speech and association.

Recent Letters from The Blade

Jacobs' arrogance is astonishing

Recently, President Lloyd Jacobs of the University of Toledo stated that bonuses were justified because his administrators "took all the risks."

As a professor at UT, I am outraged that President Jacobs claims that administrators take all of the risks. What risks do they take that the other faculty and staffs on campus do not?

Administrators are protected by state and federal employment laws and by their contracts.

When ex-President Vik Kapoor was terminated, he remained a professor with a salary near what he was paid as president.

As president emeritus, Dan Johnson retained a salary greater than his pay as president.

In the recent layoffs, exceptionally few administrators were terminated. It seems to me that low-level personnel at UT have far more risks because the greater proportion of the layoffs have come from their ranks. And they did not have continuing salaries.

President Jacobs' answer to questions on two occasions regarding relinquishing part of his bonus was to the effect that he earned his bonuses and what he did with them was his business.

Administrators do not risk their personal money in their duties: they use taxpayer money and funds collected through donations and grants to the university.

Administrators take home salaries in the hundreds of thousands of dollars and then add bonuses for longevity and whatever else the president decides is fitting for their contracts.

However, the lower-level personnel have much lower salaries and no such bonuses. Where is the risk?

It seems to me that these bonuses are convoluted: The lower-level personnel are taking the greater risks with no bonuses while the administrators with very rewarding jobs with little risk receive large bonuses.

Am I missing something here?

WALTER W. OLSON,

Mechanical, Industrial, and Manufacturing

Engineering,

University of Toledo

It's the same old, same old at UT

I could hardly believe the arrogance of Dr. Lloyd Jacobs, president of the University of Toledo, when a reporter asked if he would be willing to forgo his bonus in light of the layoffs, raise in tuition, etc.

His comment was that he worked for it. Is that to say that the ones being laid off did not work for their pay?

All I can say is, business as usual at UT. Some things never change.

SANDY FLICK

Rose Acres Drive

UT also has checks, balances

In response to letter titled "Professors must focus on teaching," I would like to point out that the University of Toledo operates on the basis of shared governance.

This means that faculty members participate in the administration of the university.

A focus on teaching requires faculty to address administrative issues such as policies, procedures, and yes, finances, because these all affect classroom outcomes. A university with solid and equitable finances benefits everyone, including and especially the students. Just as the U.S. government is constituted to have checks and balances, so is our university government.

The UT-AAUP is one of those checks against UT administrators who most recently have displayed more concern for their own profit rather than a concern for the common good.

LINDA M. ROUILLARD,

Associate Professor

of French,

University of Toledo

Quote of the Year (so far)

The following is excerpted from the recent UT AAUP newsletter concerning the official university response to news of the bonus scandal:

. . . . Either Jacobs is misleading the media or he has misled the Board of Trustees.

President Jacobs objected to "the general tone" of the UT-AAUP Newsletter. Many persons on this campus object to the "general tone" of the Jacobs Administration. During his tenure as President, he has introduced an administrative culture of fear and intimidation. . . .

A point of logic must be raised here, with all respect to UT AAUP, the conclusions that President Jacobs has (1) misled the media and (2) the Board of Trustees are not mutually exclusive. Both would seem likely given his considerable talent at spinning "visions."

How to Contribute

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